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In last two postings, are the BEST ones you have written. You are absolutely right that Gallaudet needs to take a huge leap to incorporate the concept of Mini-MIT... or take some kind of significant lead. I agree with you completely.
I wonder why Gallaudet is stuck with 'liberal arts/service orientated' mindset? This NEEDS to be changed because technology is becoming an integral part of our lives, and it can make us even more productive.
I am still amazed how you are able to find all of the information, most of all, finding a videoclip of hologram!
I am so embarrassed that our world's premier university of the deaf is so horribly behind with technology, and letting other people dictate how we communicate.
Did you submit both of your postings (today and yesterday's) to Dr. Davila via greatideas@gallaudet.edu?
I sincerely hope so!
Warmest,
Amy
Greatideas...
Yep.
Including this recent blog.
But I cannot do this alone. The voices must be heard so Davila can, *ahem*, hear them.
Amy,
A reply from Greatideas...
"----- The following is an automated response
----- to your message generated on behalf of greatideas@gallaudet.edu
Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to share your great ideas and suggestions for
Gallaudet University. A staff member from the President's Office will follow up
with your email shortly.
Thank you."
Hmmm. An automated response? Not exactly the warm fuzzy feeling one gets when reading the reply. And a staff member will be reading all the Greatideas emails, too. And not Davila? Sure, he's busy but what makes the staff member qualified to pick and choose and send it up to Davila?
Or will the staff member take some abbreviated notes and summarize them (all submittals) to Davila?
I echo the sentiment that the last two posts are among the best that you have ever written. I just would like to point out that these issues are exactly the reason why in 2003 I pushed for a change in Gallaudet's research priorities to become more proactive about new technologies. Originally the priority just was about evaluating new technologies, full stop. In 2004 the revised priority became:
Development and Evaluation of Technologies That May Benefit Deaf and Hard of Hearing People. Studies of technology and media aimed at enhancing the education and communication access of deaf and hard of hearing people. This would include evaluation of emerging technologies, studies of innovative applications of technology, and evaluation of the accessibility to deaf and hard of hearing consumers of new technology, media and collaborative efforts to shape the direction of future technological developments and accessibility. Applies to a broad range of visual and audiological technologies.
So, there is some acknowledgment that we need to shape the direction of technological developments, which is a step forward. However, I will be honest here and say that this revision is not strong enough, and we do not have much time to push through further changes.
Another problem is that if we want to realize the idea of a mini-MIT campus, we have to start with a strong core group of deaf electrical and computer engineers, which Gallaudet currently does not have. Part of what makes a group creative and do excellent science are the synergies that develop among people of a similar level of expertise in related fields, because people can pull one another up when the going gets rough, and they also stand a much better chance of coming up with creative solutions to *technological* problems than an interdisciplinary team.
We also need to do much more to develop new deaf talent in the area. Although we can find many deaf people in these fields on the B.S. and M.S. level, on the Ph.D. level engineers are alarmingly underrepresented even taking into account the generally abysmally low percentage of deaf people in academia.
I forgot to add: We need to take a long, hard look at math in deaf education. The state of affairs is downright desperate, but math is simply required for advancing the state of the art in technology.
Thanks, Christian.
I agree about the weakness on the needed core group of deaf electrical and computer engineers. I recognize that. Which is why I advocate on taking advantage of the 12 or 13 universities in and around the D.C. area that are part of the Consortium program of which Gallaudet is a member of. I went to several classes at George Washington University while I was a student at Gallaudet. It was refreshing to see more challenging venues outside of Gallaudet.
I am still baffled to this day why Gallaudet couldn't establish a few more degree programs such as electrical and computer engineering (not computer science which is a bit different here). For folks who don't know what "engineering is," it is about designing and making things.
The closest thing that Gallaudet has to offer in the sciences that relate closely to that of an engineering class would probably be Physics and secondly the computer science courses. Math probably comes to a distant 3rd but it has nothing to do with designing but it does provide basic and advanced principles crucial for any engineers to study upon. In fact, it's a requirement. There's no shortages on taking the required math and physics courses at Gallaudet. The question would be can Gallaudet offer an engineering degree but allows students to take additional engineering courses at one of the 12 other universities and have them count toward their graduation? This is an area I'm not even sure how this could be done. What would the minimum number of engineering courses needed at Gallaudet in order for the university's engineering degree become valid? Not sure if I'm making this clear.
I understand where you’re coming from about the M.S. and PhD problem. Then again we have the consortium universities. And then again we have the $170 million dollar endowment that Gallaudet could tap into to help students get their M.S. and/or PhD at one of the 12 consortium universities and have them teach and help do the engineering at Gallaudet. In fact, make it a point to these potential M.S. or PhD candidates that if they do their thesis or dissertation on technology and computer that is deaf-related, Gallaudet can be able to offer more support to those graduates. And then, perhaps, in the end if Gallaudet does have a strong and viable “mini-MIT” type program along with an engineering program, these students perhaps could come and work for Gallaudet whether as a researcher or teaching. And why not? Anything is possible at this time.
But that doesn't mean Gallaudet has to wait until they finally get around and be able to offer a bachelor in electrical and/or computer engineering degree(s). Gallaudet can still provide support and help to faculty, staff as well as students majoring in the sciences by encouraging such active thinking, brain storming and developing great ideas, and get them to be more pro-active to see these things come to fruition.
What you did Christian, and I remember you told me all about this back in 2004 about you pushing your idea, is that you were pushing against the then campus/admin status quo. This time we’re facing a different status quo and that is to survive at the moment.
Why would Dr. Davila ask us to send him “great ideas” if he needed our help? Pushing our ideas ought to be easier this time around and get them or Dr. Davila to actually listen and perhaps concur strongly your/our case.
Christian, you are still on campus. You have about two months til you leave. You do have the opportunity to leave an indelible mark on campus by getting the people who support you (staff, professors, students..etc) and make a strong case to Dr. Davila your ideas ( and mine) that you tried to push 3 years ago.
People like Jason Lamberton, Christian Vogler, Bill Milios (I drove the both of us to AT&T in NJ for a summer intern work back in the summer of 1990. Ask him about the rolling tire story on the interstate), and many others who can help make our voices that much more louder for Dr. Davila to hear. I believe we do have that kind of over-whelming support already from the Gallaudet community to see that this kind of vision come to fruition.
It's either we can try and control our destiny or we don't and sit back and do nothing. This is the perfect time to make that push.
And lastly, again, I cannot do this alone 1500 miles away in New Mexico but you do have my support and anybody else who feel that this is a great potential to push this idea/concept once again.
We have to keep pushing. That's all.
About the math education. I agree. Then again because of the communication infrastructure constantly improving with better and faster internet connection, we can use technology as a way to help students get excited about math and physics. I have a degree in Mathematics, so I know what it's like seeing that it doesn't get a whole lot of support (except for Physics which Dr. Snyder is famous in his collaborative work with NASA and such). Video-phone technology is improving. Infrastructure is improving and continues to get cheaper to use. yada yada...you get the idea. There are lots of ideas out there. Gallaudet could also set up an open "think tank" for anyone to join and be a part of the discussion. Even kids from MSSD could contribute.
I find this discussion fascinating and at the same time, personally lamenting at whatever missed opportunities I've had throughout the years. 
Prior to enrolling at Gallaudet, I attended Remington College and undertook this regimen:
Electronic & Computer Engineering Technology
However, DPN changed all of that! I enrolled at Gallaudet that Fall. One 'well-known' Deaf alumni of that Remington program, is none other than Fred Beam, the dancer extraordinare. Would be truly oxymoronic if this dancer worked at this mini-MIT concept for Gallaudet!
At Gallaudet, I originally declared Computer Science as a major. Then I saw that I had to undertake a brutal slate of Math courses! Fate intervened again, and I changed my major to Accounting.
Looking back, I can't help but wonder what missed opportunities were out there had I not changed majors. (I don't regret leaving Remington, however!) I would have worked at a few dot coms, cashed in a few stock options (and probably blow $$$ away as well!), and generally lived life differently.
Now, I'm just an armchair strategist for all things concerning Gallaudet. Not too shabby, I guess. In the end, I do like your technological push for Gallaudet a lot, and enthusiastically endorse this paradigm shift.
Todd, yep. We bloggers and supporters out there can simply raise the volume to a crescendo so that Dr. Davila can hear us. None of these "what if" scenarios if we cannot even begin to try and implement them or at least do some serious research on campus for a change.
Rob Wilks' a mate of mine - shortly after he did the vlog I did mine as well and there was a mini-exposion of vlogging in the UK, though it died off mainly as back then, technology for it was complicated and blogging just isn't as popular in UK as it is in USA.
However prior to this, we had a email egroup - called BSL VGroup where we had emails with a video attachment of up to 5-6Mb - the mailing list was operated by me and this ran from 2003 or year before I think, where we would upload emails with no content but video attachment so that we could have a group discussion in sign language.
Vlogging was a natural follow-up to that email egroup - so as you can see, communicating via video but not videophones happened before vlogging was thought of.
Cheers
This might answer your comments:
http://www.alisonbryan.com/
thoug...uage_vlogs.html
http://jdconrad.blogspot.com/
200...01_archive.html
I remember that blog as being one of the first vlog from USA - except that he did not do it in ASL, but in BSL.
Link from deaf-blogs.com
This post will explain the state of sign language on the web in 2004:
http://www.alisonbryan.com/
notes...ge_the_web.html
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